MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sorry about this chapter, it's kinda poorly written, but I just wanted to hurry up and get to Mona so I kinda forgot about the rest. Can you blame me? I mean, who doesn't want to know what happened to her? Anyhow, I hope you all had a great Christmas, or Hanukah or whatever other holiday you celebrate. I don't own the ninja turtles and here we go…

…

The four turtles stood on the roof of the warehouse awaiting the signal from their friends down below. When Donnie had explained his plan it seemed easy enough, but now that they were here the seriousness of the situation had set in.

Donatello had gone through his plan in great detail, fearing that if he left anything out it would result in the plan failing and them losing Mona Lisa forever. The basic premise was simple. Get in, get Mona Lisa, and get out. It was the execution that required some thought. The place would be crawling with Foot ninjas and they had no idea where Mona was being kept. That was where Donnie's plan kicked in.

The four of them would go in, with Casey and April waiting in the Battle Shell on the street below. April would hack in to the Foot's mainframe and access their security system to find out where Mona Lisa was being kept. Being tapped in to the Foot's security allowed April to access their security cameras and keep the guys updated on any approaching danger. Don had set them all up with small headpieces so that they were all able to communicate with each other. Once April had found Mona's whereabouts, she would notify the guys. Once they were in they were to split up. One was to go find Mona Lisa and the other three were to go the opposite end of the building and create a distraction. They wouldn't have much time, Donnie was running under the hypothesis that the closer they got to Mona, the more security there would be. Even with April Manning the security, he estimated that it would have to take approximately five minutes for them to get out of the building once an alarm was tripped. For that reason the distraction was added to the plan. They had all decided that they needed to get Mona out safely and the only way to do that was to lead the Foot away from Mona Lisa. Whoever was with Mona would notify the others as soon as they found her and they would all make their exit.

It was already decided that Raph would be the one to go after Mona. He had volunteered the moment he heard the plan. He wasn't there to save her; he wasn't with his brothers when they found out her location. He felt like he had to do something and this was it. He was going to find her and bring her out safely. He was going to rescue her.

"Guys I found her." April's voice buzzed in their ears. "She's on the fifth floor."

"Thanks April." Donnie said, pressing the small button on his earpiece to reply.

"Well guys, looks like we're going in." Leo said to his brothers.

It took them a little longer than expected to but they were still making good time and managed to get into the building undetected. They stuck to the shadows, only taking routes that had been confirmed as potentially safe by April. Travelling downwards through the building was a little disorienting and it seemed to be taking forever to get from one level down to the other, it wasn't until April pointed it out to them that they realised they were finally on level five.

Raphael paused. It seemed to take forever to get there but now it was happening he seemed frozen in place. What if something went wrong? What if he couldn't get her out of there?

"…Raph…Raph are you ready?" Leo was shaking his arm, trying to get his attention.

Raphael snapped out of his sudden lack of confidence and forced himself to get back into the zone. "Yeah." He replied, focusing on the task ahead and preparing to break off from his brothers. "I'm ready."

…

"Umm… excuse me, could someone let me out. I really don't deserve to be here, I -"

"Quiet!" one of the head foot ninja said as he walked passed, slamming his fist against the cell door as he did so.

Shocked, Jordan Perry jumped back in his cell. He had been put there little over a week ago for refusing to participate in the Shredder's plan any longer and since then had begged every foot ninja that walked past to let him out. It was undignified and very unlike him to beg for anything, but Perry did not do well in confinement. The cell they had put him in wasn't even near the one they were keeping that poor girl in or even in the lab itself. It was several doors down the hall, cut off from the other rooms and the only human contact he had came from the occasional ninja that would walk past his door or bring him his meals.

"You….you there." He called to the two foot ninja that were walking past. "Could you please let me out now? Pardon, could you….. excuse me, wait….. COME BACK!"

The professor watched the pair of foot ninja walk straight pass and disappear down the hall. He stood there for a few moments, staring out the pane of glass in his cell door. He saw something flicker in the distance, a shadow maybe. Eventually, it moved again. And again. It got bigger and bigger as it got closer to his cell. Perry had no idea what it was; a foot ninja did not keep to the shadows like this in his own building and the Shredder, in true alpha male style, always tried to make his entrance as big and as menacing as possible.

"Hello?" Perry sang out into the hall. "Hello? Is anyone there? Can you help me? Uh…hello?"

The figure seemed to stop in its tracks and then suddenly disappeared. Disheartened, the professor stepped back from the door. Maybe there wasn't anyone there; maybe he was just imagining things.

"Hello?" Perry jumped and turned around. Staring through the pane of glass was a large green face wearing a red mask. "Anyone in here?"

"Y-yes." He replied. He wasn't quite sure what he was talking to, but it appeared to be some kind of giant turtle. "Great Scott, you're a… a turtle."

"Names Raphael." The turtle grunted. The turtle looked him up and down through the glass.

"I am Professor Jordan Perry." He told him, partly because he felt uncomfortable under the turtles gaze and wanted to break the silence.

"Perry? The kidnapped scientist?" the Professor nodded. "OK.. well… uh, I'm gonna get you out of here, OK?"

Raphael was tense, he shouldn't have been wasting time, he should be trying to rescue Mona Lisa. But this guy was in trouble too and he couldn't just leave him there. He pulled out one of his sai's to open the door before he realised it was a pin code lock. "Hey Professor, you know the code to this lock?"

"No – wait, yes. It's 64652….. 64651….. 63..?"Raph sighed as the professor tried to remember the code.

"Never mind." He said, pulling out his sai again. Using it to break the lock would surely set off the alarm and he really didn't want to expose himself this early, but he had no choice. Raphael raised his sai and plunged it into the keypad and, sure enough, the alarm went off, followed shortly afterwards by a voice repeating: "disturbance on Level 2". Raph guessed that the 'disturbance' was his brothers, who had probably exposed themselves to take credit for tripping the alarm.

Raph pulled the door open and motioned for Perry to leave the cell, then, hearing footsteps, pushed him back inside and stepped in after him. He pulled the door shut and ducked down as a herd of ninja ran straight past.

It took longer than he wanted to wait for all the foot ninja to pass, but Raph used the time to gather information from Professor Perry. "Do you know Mona Lisa?" he asked, cutting to the chase.

"P-pardon?" the professor said, bemused.

"Mona Lisa. Do you know her?"

"Mona Li- Yes! Yes, of course I know her." Perry fixed his glasses. "You- You're here to rescue her aren't you? You're one of the turtles the Shredder is always going on about."

"Where is she?" Raph stood up to peer out the small window in the door. Seeing that the halls were clear, he through the door open and ran out.

"She's being kept in a Lab a few doors down from here, but you should know…"

Raphael turned to face the Professor. "You stay here. I'll be back."

He heard the professor calling him but he wouldn't stop. He ran down the hall till he found that pair of double doors that lead to the lab Professor Perry was talking about. Pushing through the doors, he was surprised to see a small amount of Foot Scientists still working in the room. Immediately all heads turned to face the giant turtle.

"Well don't just stand there" A man, presumably Baxter Stockman, yelled from the back of the room. "Get Him!"

The ninja obeyed and attacked him from all sides. They obviously had little consideration for the work they were doing, because Raphael was thrown across and into a large work bench holding several kinds of chemicals and very expensive-looking equipment.

"Be careful you fools!" Stockman exclaimed, rushing forward to try and save his work.

Raph picked himself up and threw a punch at the closest person to him, which just happened to be Baxter Stockman. The obnoxious scientist stumbled back a few steps, knocking over another table and more of his precious work. He saw a fist fly at him out of the corner of his eye and turned to grab the ninja it belonged to, hurtling him into Stockman which, in turn, caused both of them to smash into the wall behind them.

Taking all of the foot Ninja down ended up taking him at least 10 minutes, which would have been a good time, but in Raph's case it was seven minutes too long. There was no more time left, he had to find Mona.

"Raph, according to the layout, the cells are on the left of the lab." Raph jumped a little, he had forgotten about April and the earpiece.

Panting, Raphael turned to face the left side of the lab. At the very back there seemed to be a row of cells built into the wall, each one like a tiny little prison.

"Raphael?" A familiar voice called out. It was soft and weak but he recognised it immediately. He followed the voice to the last cell at the very end of the room.

The lab itself was dimly lit, but the cage had no lighting at all so he could see if anyone was actually in there. "Mona. Mona, are you there? Is that you?" He saw something shift in the shadows.

"Raphael." She repeated. The figure shifted again, it looked as if she was trying to come forward, but then she stopped herself. "Raph, go away. I don't want you to see me."

The turtle wasn't listening, he was trying to jimmy open the lock with his sai. "Don't worry Mona, I'm gonna get you outta here." He heard a distinctive metallic click and gave a short laugh of triumph as he push the cell door open.

"NO!" She screamed at him, stopping him in his tracks.

"You gotta get out of there Raph, you're running out of time." April's voice said in his ear.

"Mona" He said as sincerely as he could. "C'mon, we gotta go. Now."

"No!" She screamed again as he tried to step forward. "Raph, you don't get it. I can't go back. Not anymore. I can never go back to my old life."

Raphael was confused. "Mona, what are you talking about? What's going on?"

"T-they did things to me, Raphael. They…. They changed me."

"Changed how?" His confusion was now replaced with a deep feeling of rage coming from the pit of his stomach. "What did they do to you?" She said nothing. "What did they do to you Mona?"

"I'm different." She stated coldly, more to herself than to Raphael.

He stood there in silence for a few moments before his thoughts were interrupted. "Raph, where are you?" April said through the earpiece. "Your brothers are already back. Have you found Mona?"

"Yeah I found her." He replied. "We'll be there soon." The transmission ended and once more he focused his attention on Mona Lisa, he could just make out her silhouette in the darkness. "Mona, c'mon. Whatever they've done to you, we can help. We can fix it."

"No you can't."

"At least let us try. Whatever happens, we'll be here for you. "

"Something's already happened." She said bitterly, Raphael could've sworn he saw the shadows shift around her legs.

He began to grow suspicious. What could she possibly be hiding there in the darkness? "Let me see you."

"No."

"Why not?" No answer. "Mona, please. Show me what they did to you."

"You won't like it."

"I don't care." Raph could hear her breathing getting heavier.

"Raphael-" April interjected.

"Yeah, I know." He said, cutting her off. "Mona, we gotta go now."

"But Raph-"

"Mona, whatever they did to you, none of us are gonna look at you any differently for it. There may not be anything we can do, but you're going to have to trust that we are going to help you. Do you trust us?"

"Raph…"

"Do you trust me?"

She was silent for a few moments. The alarm wasn't going off any more. She moved forward, one step at a time, and slowly her silhouette became clearer and clearer. Raphael saw it before she was even in the light. At first he thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, but then he saw it clear as day. A tail. A long, smooth, green tail.

Raph gasped as she stepped into the light. It couldn't be real. This couldn't be Mona Lisa. Mona was tan and soft and beautiful. Mona was human. This, whatever it was, was not. It was green and smooth and tailed, with webbed fingers and a beak similar to the ones he and his brothers had, only it was a lot more feminine-looking. The way it looked at Raph unnerved him, its eyes were much too familiar.

"Raph…" It said softly. He stepped back in shock. That voice… that was Mona's voice. But it couldn't be. If that was Mona's voice that would mean that that was…

"Mona Lisa?" She nodded slowly. Raph's head was spinning. He could faintly hear April's voice in his ear but he wasn't listening to what she was saying.

This was Mona. Only, it wasn't Mona. Not anymore. She wasn't even human, not physically anyway. She was something else entirely now, and Raph knew exactly what that was, though he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

"Y-you're… a" He stammered, struggling to find his words.

"Say it." She told him, her voice trembling with each word. "I'm a mutant."

…

*insert dramatic music here*

Bam! Bet you didn't see that one coming! Just kidding, what kind of mutation story would it be if someone didn't get mutated? Anyway, I know this isn't my best chapter (none of them are really) but it'll do for now, I might rewrite later on but now I just wanna finish the story. Oh, and don't worry about professor perry, he shall be rescued next chapter. Only 3 chapters left (maybe 4 if guys play ur cards right [*shifty eyes*]). Tell me what you guys think OK? Happy Holidays!

Xx